


Beta Testing

by Sincognito



Category: Underfell - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Child Abuse, Child Death, Child Neglect, Clones, Genetically Engineered Beings, Human Experimentation, M/M, Other, Soul Bond, Soul Damage, Unethical Experimentation, forced soul bond
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 12:31:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14044320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sincognito/pseuds/Sincognito
Summary: Sans has grown up watching test subjects perish every other day, no one cares about some experiment that they can just clone again. They’re bred to be dull, stupid and blindly follow orders for the all-important progression of monster science!





	Beta Testing

Sans spat out several curses, throwing his arms down beside him in defeat. It had been an exceedingly long and tedious day, and he had been looking forward to heading back to his room and settling down for a well needed night’s rest. He had, however, failed to take into account the fact that he was not alone.

Normally the lab would be deserted in the wee hours of the morning – save for when some of the scientists decided to remain behind after hours to conclude an experiment – and so Sans was rather irritated when his surprisingly peaceful rest had been disturbed by the sound of crying. He had at first attempted to simply ignore it, praying that it would simply go away and he could continue resting. Unfortunately, the universe had decided that life could never be so simple for the small skeleton.

Deciding that he would have to deal with the matter himself, he hissed quietly under his breath before sitting up and stretching out his joints. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he lazily slid off the edge of the mattress and into a standing position. He was quick to make his way to the heavy steel door between his quarters and the remainder of the lab.

After sparing a moment to scan the hallway outside in both directions, Sans began jogging in the direction of the remarkably loud cries. He knew exactly where the sound would be coming from and was fortunate that the room wasn’t far from his own. While he was not forbidden to roam the laboratories at his leisure, he didn’t desire to meet with any of the monsters that worked there, particularly the Head Royal Scientist. The thought alone made his bones crawl.

When he finally came upon the room he had been seeking he hesitated, he hand pausing mere inches from the door handle. Of all the rooms in the laboratory, this had always been the one he despised the most. His mind raced through all of the horrific scenes he had been witness to, and the thought of finding something he truly didn’t want to see almost made him flee, but he could still hear crying, and it was getting louder. With every bit of strength, the sleep-deprived monster still had, he twisted the knob and pushed the door open. 

The room was dimly lit – there were no lights other than the blue light cast by the nearby monitors – only just bright enough for Sans to make out the features of the large room. He moved forward, heading towards a small crib that sat off to one of the corners of the room, carefully switching on a small overhead lamp once he reached it.

A tiny baby skeleton rested within the crib, crimson magic streaming down its tiny face while it screamed. There was no doubt in Sans’ mind that the child was in pain, clearly from the cracks that spread across its fragile soul like a spider’s web. It was dying. Neglected and alone, without ever knowing kindness or a gentle touch. Just like the others.

But that didn’t matter, it wasn’t a real monster, it was, for lack of a better phrase, a mere clone; a creature made from a mishmash of genetic codes and brought to life without even the slightest natural power. It was a thing, a thing created in a lab with no other purpose than to be a test that the scientists could poke and prod and break and then forget about as though it had never existed in the first place.

The baby had outlived its usefulness and had been left to simply fall down and dust, just like the countless children before it. Sans didn’t particularly care about it, it was what happened to all of the subjects eventually, and so he treated it just like his superiors did, it was the only way he knew. “Shu’ up, runt,” he hissed, scowling down at it.

He almost regretted taking such a harsh tone when the skeleton began to scream louder, its voice raw and beginning to sound less and less natural the longer its pained wails persisted. He took a deep breath, attempting a different approach, “c’mon li’l guy, that’s enough cryin’ for one night,” he tried to speak softly, mimicking the tones that some of the lab assistants used with him when he had been younger.

To his dismay, the monster simply continued its distressed sobs, beginning to bite down on one of its fists while it bashed the other one against the small mattress it led on, kicking out its legs in obvious agitation. Sans wasn’t sure what he had expected – it was a child bred to be a mindless creature to follow orders – of course, it wouldn’t understand.

He sighed heavily, feeling like the weight of the entire mountain rested on his shoulders. He couldn’t leave it screaming in agony, it was wrong, and even he knew that. He closed his eyes for a long moment, allowing his magic to spark to life, a small bone crackling into existence in the palm of his hand. While he was not great with magic, and his attacks were by no means powerful, the child was so weak that he would be able to kill it without making it suffer for too long.

He gathered his willpower before opening his eyes, ready to do what he knew was right. However, when he looked at the baby again he hesitated. Its cries had ceased, along with the flailing of limbs, and to Sans’ surprise the tiny monster was looking at the bone in his hands, little eyes wide with that could have been curiosity. If it had been a real monster that was.

He moved the attack around, watching as the small skeleton’s eyes never wavered from the red bone in his grasp. Despite himself, Sans found himself grinning slightly as the rather amusing sight, “Ya like this thing, eh?” The monster suddenly looked at Sans, meeting his eyes directly, looking at him almost as though it was trying to read his expression.

Sans froze, it wasn’t supposed to do that. The experiments had always been dull-witted creatures that were unable to comprehend emotion, sure they could react to stimuli, but they couldn’t do any form of complex thinking for themselves, that was how they were separate from real living creatures. If this child could think, could feel, could understand both itself and others? Sans couldn’t kill a sapient creature.

However, the troubling matter remained that it was cruel to simply leave the young monster to die from negligence. He knew that the scientists could care less about some useless experiment, he was no use to anyone.

The child whined softly, reaching out towards Sans with its miniature hands and successfully snapping him from his thoughts. Against his better judgement, he reached for the child, taking care to avoid the numerous wires attached to its soul while he tenderly scooped it up. He had no experience with young monsters, and the skeleton itself had never been held properly. While Sans was practically shaking in fear as he clutched the tiny monster, it seemed quite happy to lean against him, yawning while it did so.

It felt wrong on many, many levels to be showing such affection to one of the test subjects, but as the baby quickly began to relax, seemingly forgetting about its pain, Sans couldn’t help but feel he had made the right decision. It was then that it came to him; the scientists didn’t care about the child and had left it to die, so by that logic, they wouldn’t care if someone took it.

He knew that they would never see it that way, he would get in so very much trouble for doing something so foolish, and they would likely take the child from him and dust it anyway. It didn’t matter. He ever so gently worked his hand between the baby’s ribs, prying the wires from around its fragile soul. He would take responsibility for the child, raise it to the best of his abilities, despite being several years shy of adulthood.

“I’ve gotcha little guy,” he hummed softly, feeling the urge to hold the skeleton close to his chest while his eye lights scanned over the small information board attached to the crib. They had been experimenting with its soul, but it seemed there was nothing wrong with it physically, much to Sans’ relief.

He spared a final glance at the information, ‘subject 12, project B’. Sans knew that Project B was the Beta project, the stronger skeletons with better bodies and souls that were perfect for conducting biological experiments. He turned away having read enough. It didn’t list exactly what its soul had been used for, but he knew that given its terrible screams from earlier it was nothing pleasant.

“So, Beta, how’s about we head off to bed?” he asked, giggling slightly when the baby merely yawned.

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to spend my evening writing up this first part/prologue to a fic I’m loosely planning. Don’t worry, I’m still working on requests, I just decided to have some time off since I’ve finally finished my exams!


End file.
